Gold Still Can’t Catch the Cliff Trade

By Brendan Conway

Go figure, but goldbugs can’t seem to get much traction — any traction at all, really — from D.C.’s budgetary worries.

The metal’s price fell to a three-month low after House Speaker John Boehner unveiled the since-abandoned “Plan B” for the fiscal cliff on Dec. 18, and it’s lower still at this writing. It’s down another half a percentage point or so to $1,657 Friday afternoon, cutting the year-to-date gain to 5.8%. Gold managed to rise on Wednesday and Thursday, but that was worth just 0.24% over two sessions. Month to date gold entered Friday down 2.82%.

The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and the the iShares Gold Trust (IAU) are down by half a percentage point and the Sprott Physical Gold Trust (PHYS) is down 0.7%. The Sprott fund’s YTD gain is now down to 1.7% on a price basis, according to FactSet Research Systems.

No love today for the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX), either: This one is down 0.7% and is off 12% YTD on a price basis.

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